Flavours of Asia @ Mr Kitchen

Mr Kitchen is a fast food franchise outlet that has been around for some time now. Unlike other Asian fast food places that have grown in popularity over a short period of time (eg. Rice-workshop, Hanaichi, Dessert Story etc…), Mr Kitchen is more a silent achiever. If you do a google search for it, very limited links pop up. The business doesn’t even have its own website, instead,it relies on reviews from blogs and Zomato (Mr Kitchen @Boxhill, @CBD,@ThePines )

Where I live, I am lucky to have two outlets very near me. For majority of the time, I have paid little interest to Mr Kitchen, and walked passed many times without thinking twice about it. Occasionally, I would comment on the rows of colorful drinks they have on display by the counter and say how pretty it looks.

One day, I was roaming around the shopping center, wanting a quick snack, but not wanting to go into a restaurant (coz that takes effort). I did circles around the food court until I finally decided, why not give Mr Kitchen a try since it has been here for a while now. And because I remember my aunt and uncle mentioning it to me a few years back, saying they tried it once, and went back to order seconds on the very same day haha! So I walked inside, and had a proper look at their menu.

Photo | Taken from google images.

They have Vietnamese Banh Mi which is kinda like a roll filled with meat/ pickled salad. They also have more traditional Cantonese style foods like pork congee with thousand year egg, red bean soup, soy milk, Chinese doughnuts and fried dough sticks. I’m not really a fan of fried foods, and I wasn’t really in the mood for soup or congee, so I decided to try the Banh Mi instead.

Of the many colorful home-made drinks they had, such as bubble tea, some strawberry yogurt drink, and mango coconut sago drink, one instantly caught my eye. It was like love at first sight. I ordered a “mint with aloe vera drink”. Since it was a hot summer’s day, I thought, what a perfect combination. It was also my mom’s first time trying out Mr Kitchen too, so she had a chicken Banh Mi with a orange citrus drink.

Photo: Of the rows and rows of colorful drinks, we ended up choosing the orange citrus drink (right) and Aloe Vera with Mint (left). As you can tell, I had already taken a large sip of the Aloe Vera drink before taking a photo :p

The Banh Mi looked pretty ordinary as they put a generous amount of pickled carrots, cucumber, mayo and a little petite spread on the bread. I thought, there can possibly be no flavour to this. I was wrong. I took my first bite and it was like a explosion of flavour and texture in my mouth. As they say, looks can be deceiving. As for the mint & aloe vera drink, it was heavenly refreshing.

Overall, if you are on the run, and need a quick lunch-fix, I would recommend Mr Kitchen. I cannot vouch for their other food products like their red bean soup and congee (because I have never tried it), but the Banh Mi and drinks they have are definitely very very good.